Made a Decision!
Instead of doing 30 things of Nano, where I will look for a writerly article each day and post it (I'll still use the tag if I come across one) I will be using November to post about The Lens of Decision-Making. A lot of the time this will be about things that are already working for me in channelling my time and energy, only now with an added, decision-making focussed explanation. I will be using the 'streamlining decisions' tag for this.
I'm in a much better place than I was a few years ago. I am still actively looking for freelance editing clients (developmental/copy editing, academic and SFF), but only to fill the gaps between existing ones. When I have work, I do it on time, to spec, and to the satisfaction of almost every client (and the PE for that one did ask me back.). I'm making progress with programming, I take a lot of photos, I make art with photos, I'm learning to digitally draw/paint, I'm decluttering at a reasonable (although not fantastic) rate. So on the whole I am productive and making good, healthy decisions which pay off.
What I am trying to achieve is to reduce my stress levels further and become more productive in the time that I *do* invest. Less guilt over the path not taken (which, let's face it, always is another one: should have worked/played/coded/decluttered/etc more); less faffing around the edges.
I figure that there are at least a couple of hours in every day - more when I don't have work - that I could be using more productively. This does not necessarily mean that there will be measurable output, though I would like to keep up with programming - otherwise I have five weeks without (this mss, it is a long one, and I will need that time.) But I also feel that reducing my stress levels and the amount of decisions I have to make at any point in time WILL make me more productive; and even if it doesn't, reduced stress levels are goooood.
So for the next month I will be tackling items as and when they come my way and looking at various tasks and habits through this lens. I have a suspicion that only half of 'hard' tasks are actually hard, and that the rest is simply either flooding me with microdecisions or placing me so squarely between decisions that I try to do a little bit of everything and in the end get nothing done. And on that note, I have finished breakfast and finished this post and will delve into my mss.
Also posted at http://green-knight.dreamwidth.org/1063512.html where it has gathered
comments. If you're reading at both sites, I'd prefer comments at DW.
I'm in a much better place than I was a few years ago. I am still actively looking for freelance editing clients (developmental/copy editing, academic and SFF), but only to fill the gaps between existing ones. When I have work, I do it on time, to spec, and to the satisfaction of almost every client (and the PE for that one did ask me back.). I'm making progress with programming, I take a lot of photos, I make art with photos, I'm learning to digitally draw/paint, I'm decluttering at a reasonable (although not fantastic) rate. So on the whole I am productive and making good, healthy decisions which pay off.
What I am trying to achieve is to reduce my stress levels further and become more productive in the time that I *do* invest. Less guilt over the path not taken (which, let's face it, always is another one: should have worked/played/coded/decluttered/etc more); less faffing around the edges.
I figure that there are at least a couple of hours in every day - more when I don't have work - that I could be using more productively. This does not necessarily mean that there will be measurable output, though I would like to keep up with programming - otherwise I have five weeks without (this mss, it is a long one, and I will need that time.) But I also feel that reducing my stress levels and the amount of decisions I have to make at any point in time WILL make me more productive; and even if it doesn't, reduced stress levels are goooood.
So for the next month I will be tackling items as and when they come my way and looking at various tasks and habits through this lens. I have a suspicion that only half of 'hard' tasks are actually hard, and that the rest is simply either flooding me with microdecisions or placing me so squarely between decisions that I try to do a little bit of everything and in the end get nothing done. And on that note, I have finished breakfast and finished this post and will delve into my mss.
Also posted at http://green-knight.dreamwidth.org/1063512.html where it has gathered
comments. If you're reading at both sites, I'd prefer comments at DW.